How the iPod changed music on a personal level. The iPods ability to store songs, use Firewire and allow users to customize playlist made the iPod successful.

A Brief History of the IPod

To better understand the iPod, one must look at how and who created it. The iPod was designed by the computer company Apple. Although Apple was originally a highly successful corporation, it had to compete with another corporation known as Microsoft. Microsoft would greatly hurt the Apple Corporation and would establish itself as the number one computer software company. This trend would continue for years and would slowly eat away at Apple. Yet Microsoft would not eliminate Apple form the market. Rather than give up, Apple would go through a renaissance that would revitalize the Apple Corporation. What really caused this renaissance? It can be speculated that that the iPod was the cause for the Apple rejuvenation.

This idea of the iPod helping the Apple Corporation is supported by the stocks chart above. As one can see, the iPod was released in 2001 which is also the time when Apple’s stock increased. This increase could be argued as being the caused the iPod. However, there is a slight dip in this stock but this has little to do with the iPod’s success. Stock is a fickle market. The dip could be explained by the market’s drop after September 11th. Although there is a slight dip in stock at first in the turn of 2000, overall there is a sharp upward movement. This is only present after the iPod’s release. To further support this, one can see that Apple’s stock has continued to increase even in our current troubled economic time. Thus, one could argue that this upward movement was caused by the iPod.

Even though the iPod is one of the most popular digital music players, it was not the first. Even though Apple did not come up with the idea of digital music players, they helped transform it. The first generation iPod was released on 23 October 2001. The iPod was shown by Steve Jobs at a conference (video of that below) in which Apple was displaying some of its products. Steve Jobs opens by talking about how Apple technology is being made to work with a broad range of others. He then reaches in his pocket and pulls out the iPod. This was amazing for the time. Never before has there been such a small yet powerful digital music player. He proceeds to talk about how the iPod will revolutionize how people listen to music.

This had great effects on people at this time. This is mostly because of the iPod’s small design. Apple would continue to improve its design and would later release different versions of the iPod such as the iPod Nano and iPod Touch. This evolution of the iPod continues to happen and is in part contributes to the success of the iPod.